With the literary canon consisting mostly of works created by and about men, the central perspective is decidedly male. This unique reference offers alternate approaches to reading traditional literature, as well as suggestions for expanding the canon to include more gender sensitive works. Covering 96 of the most frequently taught works of fiction, essays offer teachers, librarians, and students fresh insights into the female perspective in literature. The list of titles, created in consultation with educators, includes classic works by male authors like Dickens, Faulkner, and Twain, balanced with works by female authors such as Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Also included are contemporary works by writers such as Alice Walker and Margaret Atwood that are being incorporated into the curriculum, as well as those advancing a more global view, such as Sandra Cisneros' House on Mango Street and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. The essays are expertly written in an accessible language that will help students gain greater awareness of gender-related themes. Suggestions for classroom discussions—with selected works for further study—are incorporated into the entries. The volume is organized alphabetically by title and includes both author and subject indexes. An appendix of gender-related themes further enhances this volume's usefulness for curriculum applications and student research projects.

Meet Grace, who is actually excited about turning 40 in a few months, that is, until her job, marriage, and personal life take a dizzying downhill spiral. Can she recover from the most devastating time in her life, right before it's supposed to be one of the best? Fans of Emily Giffin will love Susie Orman Schnall's debut, which is all about rediscovering yourself--with grace--well after you think it's even possible anymore. On Grace deals with themes such as divorce, infidelity, re-entering the workforce after children, breast cancer, and of course, turning 40. This novel is sure to hit a chord with many women readers.

Images of Women in Literature, Fifth Edition, is an anthology of literature--short fiction, poetry, and drama--by a broad range of female and male writers depicting the roles of women in literature.

Sometimes you have to go back before you can move forward. Meg Monahan was born to be a secret keeper. From the moment she became a peer counselor in high school, Meg has been keeping her friends secrets – from sordid family drama to their sex lives – that she never wanted to know. Flash forward to adulthood when Meg is a recruiter for the world’s hippest (and most paranoid) high-tech company – and now Meg is a professional secret keeper. When sudden tragedy strikes before Meg hosts the wedding of her childhood BFF, Anne Calzaretta, the women are forced to face their past – and their secrets – in order to move on to their future. In 1978, Meg, Anne, Jennifer, and Tonya were such close friends, they were known as “The Group” in their hometown of Gridley, California. But in ninth grade, their lives were changed forever. Loss, lies, and secrets separated them, but could not break their bonds of friendship. Thirty years later, Meg and Anne reminisce about those days—dealing with parents, school, boys, sex, love, and betrayal. Anne remembers their freshman year as an easier time, but Meg, still feeling guilty about a betrayal of Anne’s trust, is haunted. Even now, Meg is keeping a secret she’s not prepared to face, let alone share. In her debut novel, based on true events, Meredith First tells a timeless story about the bonds of friendship, loss, and betrayal—and the forgiveness that is within everyone. Can anyone really keep a secret forever?

A collection of short stories by a writer better known for her verse, stories that explore the cruel xuperficialities of social behavior and the heartbreak of failed love.

This book, first published in 2000, is an authoritative volume of new essays on women's writing and reading in the eighteenth century.

Preface and Acknowledgments. SECTION I: ENGENDERING LANGUAGE, SILENCE, AND VOICE. Introduction. Annotated Bibliography. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). A Room of One's Own. bell hooks (1955-). Talking Back. Leoba of England and Germany (700?-780). Letter to Lord Boniface. Matilda, Queen of England (1080-1118). Letter to Archbishop Anselm. Letter to Pope Pascal. Anne Lock (fl.1556-1590). from A Meditation of a penitent sinner, upon the 51 psalm. Isabella Whitney (fl. 1567-1573?). The Author. . .Maketh Her Will and Testament. from The Manner of Her Will. Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673). The Poetess's Hasty Resolution. The Poetess's Petition. An Excuse for So Much Writ upon My Verses. Nature's Cook. from To All Writing Ladies. Anne Killigrew (1660-1685). Upon the Saying that My Verses Were Made by Another. On a Picture Painted by Herself. Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661-1720). The Introduction. A Nocturnal Reverie. Ardelia to Melancholy. Friendship between Ephelia and Ardelia. The Answer. Frances Burney (1752-1840). from The Diary of Frances Burney. Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849). from Letters for Literary Ladies. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Northanger Abbey. Mary Shelley (1797-1851). Introduction to Frankenstein. Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855). Letter from Robert Southey. Letter to Robert Southey . Letter to George Henry Lewes. Emily Brontë (1818-1848). [Alone I sat; the summer day]. To Imagination. The Night Wind. R. Alcona to J. Brenzaida. [No coward soul is mine]. Stanzas. George Eliot (1819-1880). Silly Novels by Lady Novelists. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935). The Yellow Wallpaper. Edith Wharton (1862-1937). A Journey. Gertrude Stein (1874-1946). from Patriarchal Poetry. Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960). from Dust Tracks on a Road. Stevie Smith (1902-1971). My Muse Sits Forlorn. A Dream of Comparison. Thoughts about the Person from Porlock. May Sarton (1912-95). Journey Toward Poetry. The Muse as Medusa. Of the Muse. Hisaye Yamamoto (1921-). Seventeen Syllables. Maxine Hong Kingston (1940-). No Name Woman. Gloria Anzaldúa (1942-). Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers. Alice Walker (1944-). In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. Medbh McGuckian (1950-). To My Grandmother. From the Dressing Room. Turning the Moon into a Verb. Carol Ann Duffy (1955-). Standing Female Nude. Litany. Mrs. Aesop. Gcina Mhlophe (1959-). The Toilet. Sometimes When It Rains. The Dancer. Say No. Intertextualities. Topics for Discussion, Journals, and Essays. Group Writing and Performance Exercise. Barbara Christian (1943-). The Highs and Lows of Black Feminist Criticism. Elaine Showalter (1941-). Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness. SECTION II: WRITING BODIES/BODIES WRITING. Introduction. Annotated Bibliography. Hélène Cixous (1937-). The Laugh of the Medusa. Nancy Mairs (1943-). Reading Houses, Writing Lives: The French Connection. Anonymous. The Wife's Lament (8th century?). Anonymous. Wulf and Eadwacer (8th century?). Margery Kempe (1373?-1438). from The Book of Margery Kempe. Margery Brews Paston (1457?-1495). Letters to her Valentine/fiance. Letter to her husband, John Paston. Elizabeth I (1533-1603). On Monsieur's Departure. When I Was Fair and Young. Mary Wroth (1587?-1653?). from Pamphilia to Amphilanthus. Aphra Behn (1640-1689). The Lucky Chance. Jane Barker (1652-1727). A Virgin Life. Delarivier Manley (1663-1724). from The New Atalantis. Eliza Haywood (1693?-1756). from The Female Spectator. Harriet Jacobs (1813?-1897). from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). Monna Innominata. Djuna Barnes (1892-1982). from Ladies Almanack. To the Dogs. Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950),. from Fatal Interview. Anne Sexton (1928-1974). The Abortion. In Celebration of My Uterus. For My Lover, Returning to His Wife. Audre Lorde (1934-1992). Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power. Love Poem. Chain. Restoration-A Memorial. Bharati Mukherjee (1938-). A Wife's Story. Toni Cade Bambara (1939-1996). My Man Bovanne. Sharon Olds (1942-). That Year. The Language of the Brag. The Girl. Sex Without Love. Slavenka Drakulic (1949-). Makeup and Other Crucial Questions. Joy Harjo (1951-). Fire. Deer Ghost. City of Fire. Heartshed. Dionne Brand (1953-). Madame Alaird's Breasts. Sandra Cisneros (1955-). I the Woman. Love Poem #1. Jackie Kay (1961-). Close Shave. Other Lovers. Intertextualities. Topics for Discussion, Journals, and Essays. Group Writing and Performance Exercise. Catherine Gallagher (1945-). Who Was That Masked Woman? The Prostitute and the Playwright in the Comedies of Aphra Behn. Shari Benstock (1944-). The Lesbian Other.